A journal of the plague year, or, Memorials of the great pestilence in London, in 1665 / by Daniel De Foe. Revised edition with historical notes by E. W. Brayley ... Also, some account of the great fire in London in 1666, by Gideon Harvey ... with an appendix containing the Earl of Clarendon's account of the fire. With illustrations on steel by George Cruikshank.

  • Daniel Defoe
Date:
[1881]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A journal of the plague year, or, Memorials of the great pestilence in London, in 1665 / by Daniel De Foe. Revised edition with historical notes by E. W. Brayley ... Also, some account of the great fire in London in 1666, by Gideon Harvey ... with an appendix containing the Earl of Clarendon's account of the fire. With illustrations on steel by George Cruikshank. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University Libraries/Information Services, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University.

    21/464
    stir abroad in the morning. Now many houses are shut up where the Plague comes, and the inhabitants shut in, lest coming abroad they should spread the infection. It was very dismal to behold the red crosses, and read in great letters, Lord have mercy wpon us, on the doors, and watchmen standing before them with halberts ; and such a solitude about those places, and people passing by them so gingerly, and with such fearful looks, as if they had been lined with enemies in ambush, that waited to destroy them. In July the Plague increaseth, and prevaileth exceed- ingly ; the number of 470, which died in one week by the disease, ariseth to 725 the next week, to 1089 the next, to 1843 the next, and to 2010 the next. ^Now the Plague compasseth the walls of the city like a flood, and poureth in upon it. Now most parishes are infected, both without and within [the waUs] ; yea there are not so many houses shut up by the Plague as by the owners foi'sakiag them for fear of it, and though the inhabitants be so exceed- ingly decreased by the departure of so many thousands, yet the number of dying persons doth increase fearfully. Now the countries keep guards, lest infectious persons should from the city bring the disease unto them. Most of the rich are now gone, and the middle sort will not stay behind; but the poor are forced through poverty to stay and abide the storm. The very sinking fears they have had of the Plague hath brought the Plague and death upon many. Some, by the sight of a coffin in the streets, have fallen into a shivering, and immediately the disease has assaulted them; and Sergeant Death hath arrested them, and clapt to the doors of their houses upon them, from whence they have come forth no more, till they have been brought to their graves.